December 17, 2013
My wishy-washy-ness with Erle Stanley Gardner, and his version of Perry Mason, as well as my love of Perry Mason-as-played-by-Raymond-Burr, have been detailed on this blog in the past. So, I won’t weigh into them here (no need for me to get haunted anyway). But I still can’t stay away from his books when I find them in their pocket-sized printings, cause the covers tend to be so darn swell. And the insides certainly aren’t bad, and usually contain nuggets of joy like the below.
He went to the room, pulled the curtains, ordered four bottles of ginger ale, with plenty of ice, and got a quart of whiskey from the bell boy. Then he sat in the overstuffed chair, with his feet on the bed, and smoked.
— The Case of the Velvet Claws, Erle Stanley Gardner
December 13, 2013
Recently, an old pal-of-mine name of Eric Norris, poet-writer-reader-library-man-deadeye-shooter-guy (he sounds like a detective in a way – I hope that on his rare down hours he is solving crime where he lives in lovely Hays, KS), dropped me a note asking about a coffee drink idea. He’s a swell fella, and I’m guessing an early riser, so I understood his need for a cocktail that tastes good and operates as a pick-you-up. Cause I believe in choices, I actually came up with two coffee drink ideas, the below, and one that I’ll roll out in a week. This one has a good espresso boom but also some nice herbally action via the sweet vermouth and Bénédictine. Oh, and some gin, cause gin is nice in any morning.
Hays at 6 AM
Cracked ice
1-3/4 ounces gin
1/2 ounce chilled espresso
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce Bénédictine
3 coffee beans, for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add everything but the beans. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with 3 coffee beans.
Tags: Benedictine, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, coffee cocktail, espresso, espresso cocktail, Friday Night Cocktail, Gin, Hays at 6 AM, sweet vermouth, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Gin, Recipes, vermouth, What I'm Drinking
December 10, 2013
Interestingly, much like Rex Stout (who I just Cocktail Talked below), I haven’t read a lot of Carter Dickson, even though his mysteries fall into some areas I like inhabiting. Example A: his Sir Henry Merrivale mysteries, of which The Punch and Judy Murders is one. They’re full of twists, take place in Jolly Old England, and have a main mystery-solver who is quirky and overweight. I’m for all of those things! But I still haven’t read much of Mr. Dickson. But this book was fairly rapid, had a good ending, and some memorable moments. Perhaps none as much as when one of the characters shows up with a tray of delicious drinks.
Charters handed round some admirable gin fizzes. A little of his old sharpness, his old doggedness, had come back when he had begun to outline his facts. He sat down on the veranda rail, his arms folded and his hands cradled under bony elbows.
— Carter Dickson, The Punch and Judy Murders
December 6, 2013
People, like you (yes, you!) who have read this blog for a while, or at all, know that I’m what people call an equal-opportunity-drinker. Meaning – I tend to like almost all families of imbibables, and am open to trying pretty much everything. This doesn’t translate into me sipping on anything that tastes like gutterfied gasoline. But it does mean that I, for example, really like sherry, but also really like rye, and lemon, and etc. Also, it means that I’m not afraid to try non-traditional items in cocktails. For another example, I’ve tasted more cocktails with vinegar lately, and loving them, and have wanted to make a few myself. Luckily, I recently came into possession (thanks to Corinne from the LEG, or the Lisa Ekus Group, the finest folks in the land) of a bottle Boyajian balsamic fig vinegar, an all-natural combo that seems ideal for a dressing or a drizzle, but for me also screamed – cocktail! And thus the Atta Boy was born, which combines the beautiful Boyajian vinegar with rye, sherry, and a lemon twist. The result is fantastic, savory but with a nice rye base, a tiny bit tangy and a smidge sweet, all topped by the zing of citrus. Give it a whirl and your tastebuds will thank you.
Atta Boy
Cracked ice
2 ounces rye (I used Woodinville rye)
1/2 ounce Boyajian balsamic fig vinegar
1/2 ounce dry sherry
Wide lemon twist
1. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add the rye, vinegar, and sherry. Stir really well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the wide lemon twist, draped over the side.
Tags: Atta Boy, Boyajian balsamic fig vinegar, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Friday Night Cocktail, Rye, sherry, vinegar, What I'm Drinking, Woodinville rye
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Recipes, What I'm Drinking, Whiskey
December 3, 2013
I haven’t read a whole lot of Rex Stout books, which is a bit weird, as his famous detective Nero Wolfe and the era he wrote in both hit me fairly square in my detective-y wheelhouse (not to mention that I love the covers, as I tend to, of books from that age). But hey, these things happen. However, when I came across a copy of his book entitled The Case of the Red Box, in a pocket-sized copy and with a cover that I couldn’t resist, well, I couldn’t resist. And it was a good read, for sure, with multiple murders, a great twist-y-ness, and a lot of beer. Perhaps the strangest thing about Nero Wolfe isn’t that he never leaves his house (or rarely), or that he takes hours every day to deal with his orchids, or that he only eats at home, etc. But that he drinks a ton of beer while interviewing suspects. Awesome! However, the below quote is even better, so I skipped the beer . . . this time.
You do shorthand in that book? Good: put this down. McNair was an inveterate eater of snails, and he preferred calvados to cognac. His wife died in childbirth because he was insisting on being an artist and was too poor and incompetent to provide proper care for her.
–Rex Stout, The Case of the Red Box
November 22, 2013
It’s the holiday season y’all! Which means one fantastic thing: it’s time for another episode of The Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, with very special hunky holiday guest Jeremy Holt! Mr. Jeremy stops by to teach us how to make perhaps the finest Thanksgiving cocktail known, the Gizmo, which features Voyager gin, cranberry sauce, and simple syrup. If you want your Thanksgiving to be awesome, watch this now. Right now!
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, Cocktail video, Cocktail Videos, cranberry sauce, Friday Night Cocktail, Gizmo cocktail, Jeremy Holt, Thanksgiving cocktails, Voyager gin, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, Cocktail Videos, Gin, Good Spirits, Recipes, What I'm Drinking
November 19, 2013
Calling all bar lovers from near and far (but especially near). It’s time to round up the latest bars I’ve profiled in my monthly Seattle magazine Bar Hop column. You should read the below, pick which best matches you and your mood today, and go have a drink. But don’t forget – tip your bartender people. They work hard. Bars to hop:
• Anchor’s Down
• Montana
• Rocco’s
— See all A.J. Seattle magazine articles
Tags: Anchor’s Down, Bar Hop, Bar-Hopping, Bars, Cocktail News, Montana, Rocco’s, Seattle Bars, Seattle Magazine
Posted in: Bar Hop, Bars, Cocktail News, Seattle Magazine
November 15, 2013
Hello students of the cocktail, and welcome to another episode of the finest series on cocktails, drinking, and good times ever: The Cocktail to Cocktail Hour. In this episode, our favorite foreigner, Alastair Edwards, is back with another drinking problem, one I solve with the help of the Trilby Cocktail, a bit of an undiscovered treasure featuring Broker’s gin, Dolin dry vermouth, and crème Yvette.
PS: Special thanks to Natalie Fuller, Jeremy Holt, Beatrice Holt, Markie Butler – perhaps the finest actors this side of Stratford, and the wizardry of director Dr. Gonzo.
Tags: Alastair Edwards, Broker’s gin, cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, Cocktail video, Cocktail Videos, crème Yvette, Dolin dry vermouth, Friday Night Cocktail, Jeremy Holt, Mark Butler, Natalie Fuller, Trilby cocktail, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Cocktail to Cocktail Hour, Cocktail Videos, Gin, Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, Liqueurs, Recipes, vermouth, What I'm Drinking
